Tikkabik

My recent entry on summer vacation was in mind when I read a report in the Boston Globe (available to subscribers only, but free to register) that notes teacher salaries in this state have been rising faster than the national average -- up an average of 37 percent in the last decade, compared to 31 percent nationwide.

The rise in Mass. teachers' salaries is not the real story here, however: It's about raises that aren't pegged to achievement and mandated without any apparent thought of how they'll be funded.

I don't begrudge teachers their income -- it's a tough job, and they deserve to get paid a good wage for the jobs that they do, even if they do get two months off when the rest of the world has to work. And, as one person quoted in the Globe article wryly noted, no one ever got rich being a teacher.

But the bottom line is that teachers get the raises whether they deserve them or not -- it's not pegged to performance or achievement, and a teacher who's bad will get the same raise as a teacher who's good -- as long as they stay in the school system long enough. That's a lousy system.

There should be some merit-based compensation system in place here, and an effort should be made to replace teachers who are just going through the motions, counting the days until they can collect a pension. I had enough of those lousy, ineffective educators in my own life to really have a sour taste in my mouth about public academia as soon as I graduated, and I think it had a lot to do with why I never successfully went back. There are just so many lousy and mediocre teachers, and so few good ones that actually inspire or encourage.

I'm sorry to say that my kids continue to deal with those same speedbumps today -- teachers who have figured out a way to work the system, or just don't like what they do anymore, and are more trouble than they're worth, but more trouble to replace than the school system is willing to deal with, either. This system was busted almost 30 years ago when I entered it, and it's still broken, near as I can tell.

What's more, the way the money is actually distributed to pay these teachers is screwed up beyond belief. The state can mandate a pay increase as negotiated with the teachers' union, but it's up to the individual cities and towns to budget for it. This is one of those cases where I believe collective bargaining is a big mistake, at least the way it's implemented here. There are certainly other, more fundamental problems with the way that money is allocated for school systems here in Massachusetts that exacerbates this greatly.

So if the town's payroll comes up short, rather than scaling back teachers' pay, or doing away with the raises all together, they simply have to lay off the teachers they can't afford. That way, the remaining teachers get their promised raises. And class sizes increase, sometimes dramatically. That overburdens the teachers who are left as they try to manage more kids and bigger workloads.

Ultimately, it's the kids who suffer in the end because of it. Is that a good system? Hell no.